Critical Lens Lesson

Please see a lesson I am really proud of that I taught to my IB students.  On the website, I also attached the power point for reference.

To GL, or not to GL...

In the back of the room sits my interactive white board.  It's pretty. It's clean.  It's put together.

And it's dusty. 

I confess, I have not used it once this year.

I'm scared by it...
And overwhelmed...

And this year has been a whirlwind of initiatives for my instruction, few (if any) of which were defined by me.  It's hard to be effective when so much is being demanded.  And GL felt like one more thing to do.

But back to that whiteboard.  I really want to use it next year.  To try something new.  My GL friend and I have been kicking around ideas:  warm-ups, small group instruction, whole group paper revisions and editing.  I don't care how, just so long as I use it.

I assume this is part of the being a teacher.  Making mistakes, freaking out, and then changing to find something that works.  It should be no different with technology... 

Rigor Is...

What is rigor?  What does it mean to be rigorous?  This is what I have been reflecting on lately.

Rigor IS...

• Rigor is inspiration.  Rigor is a teacher who wants to be in class.  Rigor is "as much about teacher engagement as it is about student engagement"  (Livaccari).  It is teachers who are inspired to be innovative in helping students achieve rigorous and thoughtful learning targets, and thus inspire students.
• Rigor is playful.  It is open-ended questions.  It is risky.  It is innovation.  It is student-centered.  Rigor is thinking outside of the box, and sometimes constructing a whole new box altogether.
• Rigor is scaffolded.  Rigor is an ongoing climax of continuous levels of learning.  Some days in a classroom may not be that rigorous, however all days should be rising up to rigor.  Rigor is a pathway that is built while walking on it.
• Rigor is depth.  It is looking at content on a meaningful level.  In fact, more information very rarely leads to rigor.  "In virtually all AP classes visited, teachers were covering more academic content at a faster pace.  But the primary competency students were being asked to master was the ability to memorize copious amounts of information for the test"  (Wagner)  Rigor is going deeper into subject matter, making interdisciplinary connections, creating relevant learning links to the real world, and providing students multiple opportunities to apply knowledge.
• Rigor is a community of people who have high expectations for themselves and each other.  This happens on a classroom level, where students are engaged with thought-provoking material, teachers are perpetually reflecting on and modifying their own practice, and all parties own responsibility in making sure everyone learns.  This happens as well on a school level.  A student should proceed throughout the day knowing all teachers have high expectations for them, no matter what class or content.
• Rigor is messy, because rigor is individualized.  Rigor is the epitome of differentiation, because it should balance holistically students' strengths, learning targets, and interests.  Rigor is controlled chaos, so that students are driving their learning.
• Rigor is not for gifted and honors students.  Rigor is for EVERYONE.  Teaching to the lowest common denominator does not raise achievement; it merely mimics it.  Teaching rigorously raises student achievement, interest, and ownership.
• Rigor is holistic.  "It stretches your mind, engages your body and soul" (Defining Rigor, ed.)
• Rigor reflects societal expectations and definitions of success.  "[There is] a lack of alignment between what is required to get into college vs. what's needed to stay in college and succeed as an adult" (Wagner).  What America needs now is innovation.  Students who are risk-takers, who challenge the system in hopes of a better one, who are not encaged by systemic oppression.  Our classrooms--if they are to be rigorous--must be a space where thinking is fostered, questioning is encouraged, and creating is essential.  They cannot be tracks designed to cover material, rather open fields of freedom and student centered learning.  Again, Wagner:  "Rigor in the classroom...was invariably tied to the larger questions of what society will demand of students when they graduate, what it means to be an educated adult, and how the skills needed for work, citizenship, and continuous learning have changed fundamentally in the last quarter-century."
• Rigor demands of students to both think and work (see article on Rigor/Relevance Framework).
• Rigor is like a thrilling sporting event.  It requires students and teachers "to leave it all on the field."  It is paradoxically draining and energizing.

How do you define rigor?

Rigor Mortis

Lately, I have found myself pensive regarding rigor.  What is it?  How do I create and maintain it in my classroom?  It is frightening to admit I have noticed myself slipping in the level or rigor I hold for my students.  When I first started teaching at ACHS, I was new and fresh and had no preconceived notions of the students and subtle school-wide expectations.  I came from a rigorous high school English program, and a rigorous college program, so it was natural for me to hold high expectations for my students.  I didn't know another way!

But now, as poor habits seep in and I find my instruction more and more defined by external circumstances, I see how I have lost some of those high expectations.  I have deadened a bit, weakened in my passion and conviction regarding the GREAT things ALL students can achieve.

To address this, I have begun reading and reflecting on rigor.  In this post, I would like to describe rigor mortis--what rigor is not...

• Rigor is not a verb.  I know, I know, I know! about Bloom's Taxonomy.  I know what level of thinking I want to students to be at in my classroom.  I know I should be demanding that small point of the triangle.  However, just because I include a rigourous verb in my objective DOES NOT mean my class is rigorous.  Rigor is NOT lip service.
• Rigor is not breadth.  Covering more information, completing more work, writing longer papers, doing more is not rigor.  It annoys me so much when people assume that gifted or honors students need more work.  No, they need different work.  Rigor is NOT an amount, but a type.
• Rigor is not standardized.  As Dr. Daggett says:  "When assessment is viewed as the end goal or finish line, the test itself becomes a barrier to high levels of student achievement" ("Achieving Academic Excellence through Rigor and Relevance")  Bubble tests driving instruction is not the way to rigor.  Overtesting ruins rigor.  Rigor cannot be political or capitalist.
• Rigor is not disconnected from the world.  Learning rigorously cannot happen in a vacuum.  Students who are in a classroom which is detached from real world thinking, application, and relevance are deprived of rigor.
• Rigor is not a dead teacher acting as a robot.  It is not uninspired, inauthentic, or prescribed.  It is not manufactured by a program.  In fact, rigor is not teacher-constructed at all.  It is student-driven through the inspiration of a rigorous teacher, who more than likely loves his/her job.
• Rigor is not easily controlled.  Nor is it easily defined.  Rigor inspired by one teacher might look completely different than rigor in another classroom.  Rigor is not easily manipulated.

Now I admit, rigor is much easier to define through negation than by describing what it IS.  But I will attempt that in the next post.  Stay tuned!

Old-Fashioned Technology

Our classrooms have:
Televisions.
Projectors.
Sound systems.
Hard wired and wireless Internet access.
Microphones.

But, get this, they also have those old-fashioned, cold, streamlined desks.  Some have graffiti.  Some have bubble pink, bubble gum underneath.  Some teeter due to a missing leg. 

But recently, I realized how much they can be useful.  I have been having a hard time in my classrooms with my physical arrangement and groupings.  I have had the groups in 4, and 6, to facilitate active engagement.  However, I have noticed that less students talk overall.  They can hide, even in groups of 4-6. 

So after some reflection and looking around my room, I changed the room layout, so that my old-fashioned desks are just in pairs.  2.  Two.  It's hard to hide in a group of two students.  As a result, my room is filled with more voices chattering about the content.

And that puts an old-fashioned smile on my face.

One Computer; One World

I had the fortunate ability to attend an International Baccalaureate International Mindedness conference this past weekend.  Wow, how inspiring!  I learned so many things about opening up the world to my students, and I'm looking forward to applying it.

The most critical component I want to implement this year in my IB classes is world-wide connections.  We currently are reading texts from Japan, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia .  I am looking for students in those countries to speak to their experience, worldview, and lives abroad, so that my students can open their perspective--even while sitting in their seat in Commerce City.

I am hoping to foster this international communication through Skype, email, and/or blogs.  I'll post as soon as my students and I have some success upon which to reflect.

What a marvelous time we live in...we can talk to someone thousands of miles away, cultures apart, and worlds diffefrent than our own with nothing more than a few clicks of a mousepad.

T+L 2009 Reflection

Despite the October blizzard, I had the fortunate ability of attending the T+L 2009, a sub-conference of the NSBA. Dave, Joe, Emily, John, and I presented on the dynamics of the Global Learner program--both what it looks like in our district (policy) and in our classrooms (pedagogy). More importantly...we ventured throughout the other presentations to hear how and why educators are using technology. Regarding the information I gained, I would like to bounce through the halls of reflection in this blog; please join me.

• Education 2015: Given Technology, Demographics, Economic, and Social Trends, What May Be Our Worlds of US Education in 2015?

What I found fascinating about this session was the statistic that Colorado will have a student population increase by over 15%. Not that the funds will be there, as the trend indicates the funding per student will decrease over that same time period. Education will have to adapt, in that greater demands will be required with fewer resources.

One of the specific concerns I have regarding this is standards (yes, I'm going there...again). Several times at the conference it was mentioned that we are preparing students for jobs, along with the supporting skill sets, that don't even exist yet. I sincerely worry about this. How can archaic, rigid, and it-takes-years-and-committees-to-change standards TRULY prepare our students for such a mobile society? It is unfortunate--and scary-- to me that in the 21st century we teach with 20th century (ok let's keep it real, 19th century) pedagogy and ideology. I find it my responsibility then as a global learner to interpret the standards in a way that ensures my students not only can survive in this fleeting information society, but flourish.

• How a Virtual Learning Environment Can — And Should — Help Learners

Wow. How I wish I could have taped this session. Amazing! Jeff Borden addressed so many issues with our 21st century world.

I appreciated most his point about multi-modality learners. We teach in an era where very rarely are students single-style learners. They are bombarded daily with sights, sounds, and textures--at once! But then when they go to a classroom, they are fed a linear instructional style that--yawn--bores them. I hate that I have to compete in this kind of world...but it is a reality. One of the specific strategies I want to begin is using more images--pictures and videos. Yesterday in class, before discussing Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I showed a Chinese foot binding information video to my students, which engaged them and deepened an interesting classroom conversation.

In addition, he also addressed the new receptive technology, like Natal and Milo. I worry...will I as a teacher be replaced by a robot? What can I offer to my students that computers cannot? What can I be allowed to offer?

Which begs an even more pressing question...what SHOULD education look like in this world? I am reminded of a biblical proverb: "You can't pour new wine into an old wineskin." It seems to me this is the perfect advice for the field of education. We have not really reformed education; we have added cumbersome details to it. And the standards keep growing--but not adapting--to a new world. And the expectations do not change to reflect TODAY's needs...but the needs of our isolated, factory working parents and grandparents. True change will not come through addition...but innovation.

We need a paradigm shift.

Let it begin with the Global Learners.